26 Engineered Plague Zombies
Things to Come (1936) was the first movie to portray zombies caused by an engineered plague.
27. The Pawnbroker (1964) was among the first American films to feature a homosexual character and nudity during the Production Code era. It was also the first film featuring bare breasts to receive Production Code approval.
28. In 1975, Germany opened the world’s first movie rental store, which remains operational as of 2023 and is still owned and operated by the same individual.
29. Lethal Weapon (1987) was the first movie to feature a cell phone in a movie.
30. Cars (2006) was Pixar’s final movie released on VHS and simultaneously their first to be released on Blu-ray.
31 First Pie-in-the-Face Gag
In 1909’s “Mr. Flip,” actor Ben Turpin became the first person in movie history to experience the “pie in the face” gag after harassing a waitress.
32. Marvel achieved their first commercial success in Hollywood with ‘Blade’ (1998), which proved that comic book movies could perform well at the box office and paved the way for future adaptations like X-Men and Spider-Man.
33. Elizabeth Taylor became the first actor to earn a $1 million salary from a single film with “Cleopatra” (1963). She also secured 10% of the gross profits and additional compensation if filming ran over, which it did, ultimately earning her around $7 million in total (equivalent to $69 million in 2023).
34. The 18-second film “The Execution of Mary Stuart” (1895) was the first known movie to use a special effect. The film employed the stop trick, splicing two shots: one with the actor playing Mary and another with a mannequin whose head was chopped off.
35. The first actor of Asian descent to win an Academy Award was Haing S. Ngor, an amateur actor who won it for The Killing Fields (1984), his debut film . Remarkably, he survived three terms in Khmer Rouge’s concentration camps during Pol Pot’s regime.
36 First Sci-Fi Movie: “La Charcuterie Mécanique”
The Lumière brothers created the first sci-fi movie, “La Charcuterie mécanique” (The Mechanical Butcher), in 1895. The film features a mechanical box that instantly turns a whole pig into sausage, chops, and ribs.
37. In 1923, “Wild Bill Hickok” became the first film to portray Wyatt Earp, the famous gunslinger. Interestingly, the real Wyatt Earp was still alive and served as a technical adviser for the film.
38. The Silence of the Lambs is one of only three films in history to sweep the top five Oscars. Moreover, it was the first film in its genre to win Best Picture.
39. The first color movie, created in 1902, predated ‘Kinemacolor’ by eight years. British cinematographer Edward Turner filmed the earliest color moving images, featuring footage of his children. The film was discovered only in 2012 by The National Media Museum in Bradford.
40. Kishan Shrikanth is listed in the Guinness Book of Records for directing his first professional feature film at the age of 10, making him the youngest person to achieve this feat.
41 Westworld Pioneers CGI Technology
Michael Crichton both wrote and directed the movie “Westworld” (1973) with a budget of $1.25 million. It was the first movie to use modern special effects like pixel imaging, making “Westworld” arguably the first movie to utilize CGI.
42. In 1989, the Library of Congress selected “Star Wars” (1977) as one of the first films for preservation. However, it has yet to receive an archival print of the original film. Although George Lucas tried to submit a “Special Edition” print in 1997, they rejected it due to alterations from the 1977 version.
43. The Godfather II (1974) became the first movie sequel in history to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Only two other sequels have won the award: “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991) and “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2003).
44. Jack and Jill (2011) made history as the first movie to win every Razzie Awards category, surpassing even “Battlefield Earth” as the worst movie of all time.
45. The film “Being There” (1979) was the first to roll credits over outtakes. Peter Sellers, the movie’s star, believed this choice ruined his character’s mystique and cost him an Oscar win.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
46 Street Fighter and the X-Rating
The original “Street Fighter” (1974) was the first movie to receive an X-rating in the U.S. solely for violence.
47. Red Dawn (1984), starring Patrick Swayze, was the first movie to be rated PG-13.
48. Jaws (1975) became the first movie to gross $100,000,000 domestically in theaters.
49. O Brother, Where Art Thou (2000) was one of the first films to use extensive digital color correction, giving the entire movie a distinctive “rusty, yellow” tone.
50. Ghostbusters (1984) was the first film ever to be released on a USB flash drive.
RE: Fact #2 (Star Wars Defies Hollywood Norms) – I was thinking about this earlier, and I found something interesting.
The Directors Guild is cool with movies ditching the opening credits, as long as the director signs off on it. But their real problem here was different.
Basically, their rules say you can skip the whole opening credits thing, but if *anyone* gets a credit before the movie starts, the director *has* to get one too. They consider a “credit” to be any name, or even part of a name, shown at the beginning.
CBR thinks the problem was Lucasfilm promoting Lucas at the start of *Empire*, but not giving credit to the actual director. They say *Lights Out* had the same issue recently.
RE: Fact #1 (Dirty Dancing’s Unexpected Success) – Lots of directors think test screenings are super helpful—Billy Wilder even cut the whole first part of *Sunset Boulevard* because of one! Filmmakers using them to get feedback on a rough cut? Totally fine. But studios often use them to push their ideas on directors, which has led to way too many movies with dumb, happy endings tacked on.
Tons of movies get slapped with dumb happy endings after test screenings. Brazil, by Terry Gilliam, is the worst example I can think of. It originally ended with the main guy dreaming of escaping while actually being tortured to death. The US version changed it to a real escape after bad test screenings. Gilliam had to really fight to get the original version out there, even showing it to Hollywood types who weren’t total morons.
I gotta say, *I Am Legend* really messed up. They didn’t just add a happy ending; they completely changed the point of the whole story.
The movie version ends with Will Smith fighting monsters and sacrificing himself so someone else can escape with a cure.
But originally, he finds out the “monsters” are actually pretty smart and social. They’re attacking him because, from their point of view, he’s been killing them and taking their families for experiments. Instead of trying to “cure” them, he lets them go, and they leave him alone.
Basically, they turned a smart story about how we react badly to things that are different and how we see ourselves as the good guys into just another zombie movie.
1) If the monsters were smart the whole time, why do they attack people at the start?
Infected people go crazy when they first get the virus, but it seems like later on, they calmed down and formed their own society. Will Smith doesn’t get this until the original ending, but it’s hinted at even in the movie version.
2) How can the monsters be the good guys if they killed everyone?
Humans made and released the virus that destroyed everything. The monsters only became self-aware after that.
3) Doesn’t the book end with the monsters killing the main guy?
The movie wasn’t based on the book, but the original ending kept the idea that the main character was just as much a monster to them as they were to him.
4) Why write all this about a movie nobody liked?
I have a lot of free time.
RE: Fact #18 (Titanic’s Quick Film Adaptation) – So, Dorothy Gibson wore the same clothes in the Titanic movie that she wore when it sank. Being so close to that awful experience really got to her; she never acted again.
Then, in 1913, she accidentally hit and killed someone. The trial revealed she was having an affair with Jules Brulatour, a big movie guy and one of the founders of Universal. That scandal sent her to Europe, where she later became a Nazi supporter and possibly even a spy. She apparently changed her mind by 1944, got arrested as an anti-fascist, and got jailed in Milan before escaping.
She eventually died of a heart attack in Paris in 1956.
Wow, what a journey!
RE: Fact #13 (On-Screen Toilet First) – Fun fact: Hitchcock secretly bought the novel’s rights for $9,500, then snapped up tons of copies to keep the ending under wraps.
RE: Fact #6 (Cagney’s Stand Against Live Ammo) – That’s also the movie where he famously called someone a “dirty, yellow-bellied rat”—a quote that stuck with him, for better or worse.
RE: Fact #19 (Thomas Edison: Early Movie Pirate) – Edison was a sharp businessman—driven, creative, and totally ruthless about selling his stuff. He wasn’t the amazing inventor everyone thinks he was…reminds me a bit of Steve Jobs. Feel free to disagree.
RE: Fact #4 (Dual Format Filming of The Room) – I’d never even heard of The Room. Then a couple of weeks back I saw The Disaster Artist, and last night I watched the first twenty minutes of The Room – man, I was in stitches! So glad I saw them that way around.
RE: Fact #17 (Fantasia’s Surround Sound Innovation) – Six-channel surround sound? Most of us first saw that on TVs with those tiny speakers stuck to the side. Or maybe just one speaker poking out sideways.
I got it on VHS for Christmas one year, and the rewinder ate it. Yep, our VCR was ancient – no rewind button!
RE: Fact #42 (Star Wars Preservation Efforts) – Seriously, Lucas is such a jerk about this. He can totally do whatever he wants with his movies, but why won’t he just release the original? It wouldn’t hurt him—he’d probably make a ton of money! But he’s all like, “Nope, these are MY movies now. Tough luck, you guys liked the old versions, but that’s not what you’re getting.” Maybe he gets off on having the power to say no to everyone who wants it. Who knows?
RE: Fact #29 (First Cell Phone in Film) – Thirty seven years on, and here I am, pottering on the loo, checking out factrepublic on my phone. Progress!
RE: Fact #11 (Quicksand’s Cinematic Influence) – And don’t even get me started on the Flame Spurt and Rodents of Unusual Size.
RE: Fact #33 (Elizabeth Taylor’s Record-Breaking Salary) – The scandals she was caught up in—before, during, and after filming—were practically all the publicity the movie needed.
RE: Fact #6 (Cagney’s Stand Against Live Ammo) – Huh?
Ever seen an old western where the guns seem aimed at the ground? And how they dive for cover just before the bullets hit the rocks?
RE: Fact #14 (Schindler’s List TV Controversy) – So he said that the Holocaust was awful, obviously, but the nudity and strong language were particularly upsetting.
I recall that, along with other senators from both parties, we told him to get lost, and he apologized later.
The Nuremberg trials decided the Nazis said some pretty awful things. They couldn’t prove the partial nudity thing, though. Case closed.
RE: Fact #14 (Schindler’s List TV Controversy) – Wow, Tom Coburn was something else.
RE: Fact #41 (Westworld Pioneers CGI Technology) – Pixar founder Ed Catmull did the effects.
And get this, Arnold Schwarzenegger was obsessed with Yul Brynner’s acting—he wouldn’t shut up about it to James Cameron! That’s what made Cameron decide Arnold should be the Terminator, not Reese.
RE: Fact #23 (DreamWorks’ First Release) – I’m not scared of a guy wanting ten nukes, Colonel. It’s the guy who just wants one that really freaks me out.
RE: Fact #5 (Cameron’s High-Budget Milestones) – Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End was the first movie to cost at least $300 million, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens was the first to cost at least $400 million.
RE: Fact #34 (First Use of Special Effects) – That really freaked the audience out.
RE: Fact #12 (DVD’s Cinematic Debut) – Going from VCRs to DVDs was crazy! A movie with a menu? Scene selection?! No more rewinding because my annoying brother left it all messed up! I couldn’t believe it.
RE: Fact #20 (Train Illusion Scares Audience) – That’s an old wives’ tale—people joked about folks not getting movies way back when.
RE: Fact #22 (Oscars as Marketing Tool) – John Cazale’s last movie role, his fifth, and all five of his films were up for Best Picture. Technically six, if you count that cut scene of Fredo from *The Godfather* that popped up in Part III – that one got a Best Picture nod too.
RE: Fact #21 (First Movie Watched on ISS) – Captain’s log, bottom to top: Finished “Sixth Sense” disc 2 – total dud. Yuri thought it was a “Fifth Element” sequel. We didn’t give him too hard a time about it.
RE: Fact #4 (Dual Format Filming of The Room) – He was seriously one of the worst actors, directors, and producers ever to work on his own movie.
RE: Fact #43 (The Godfather II Wins Big) – Wow, I’ve never heard anyone call Silence of the Lambs a sequel before!